Results Show Dramatic Highs and Lows of Achievements : Statistics: Overall, L.A. County ranks well below state’s students as a whole in reading, writing and math.

The new generation of California test scores released today throws into high relief the dramatic contrast in student work in Los Angeles County’s 81 school districts.

From the tidy, well-appointed San Marino schools to the awesome diversity of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the county’s 1.4 million public school students scored at the highest and lowest levels of achievement, with even students from the best districts showing many weaknesses.

The county’s toniest communities still compare well under the new scores, but the test results contain plenty of image-busting numbers that show highly regarded districts can fall short when measured against rigorous standards.

Half of Beverly Hills fourth-graders, for example, were found to have limited or little or no math skills.

The Los Angeles County results also display another point consistently repeated by educators: Students who live in poor communities, those who speak little English and whose parents have limited educations commonly score in the bottom rungs.

“Who your mother and father is still dictates how well you do on any kind of assessment,” said Los Angeles County Supt. of Schools Stuart E. Gothold. “The poorer communities tend to have high transiency and students are not in a stable school situation. When they speak a language other than English, they are starting with a great disadvantage.”

Not one fourth-grader in the Lennox School district--where 82% of the students speak little or no English--scored in the top levels of math achievement.

Overall, Los Angeles County scored well below the state’s students as a whole in reading, writing and math. When compared against new statewide math standards, more than two-thirds of Los Angeles County fourth-graders scored at the lowest levels. Math scores improved only slightly among eighth- and 10th-graders.

“I don’t think anyone is too surprised,” Gothold said of the results, the first under the new California Learning Assessment System.

School districts in some of the most affluent areas--including Beverly Hills, San Marino, Palos Verdes Peninsula, South Pasadena, La Canada--consistently rank among the highest achievers in all three academic areas, far outpacing the statewide scores.

In reading and writing, the vast majority of students from these communities tested at the highest levels. Only a fraction, about 10%, scored in the lowest ranks.

In both math and writing, the tiny Hermosa Beach City School District topped the list of high achievers with 34% of its fourth-grade class reaching the top standards in math and 83% scoring in the top levels in reading.

Supt. Gwen Gross credited the high math scores to the intense teacher preparation for the test.

But educators in even these elite districts, long accustomed to being on the top of the achievement scale, have been hit with some sobering statistics.

Beverly Hills Assistant Supt. Bert Pearlman said he is uncomfortable with the state standards that describe 50% of his fourth-graders as “limited mathematical” thinkers or students with “little or no” mathematical understanding.

“This is a brand new test that is looking for expression of math competency that is new to us and our teachers,” he said. “I think the goal is admirable, but the students have not had sufficient opportunity to prepare for being tested in this way.”

In San Marino, Assistant Supt. Jack Rose, whose eighth- and 10th-graders topped the county list in math, was also rankled by low fourth-grade scores.

“Those fourth-grade questions were tough, very conceptual. It’s expecting an awful lot out of them,” Rose said.

At the opposite end of the ranking lists, the test results show that a number of school districts--all home to many poor students who are still learning English--repeatedly received the lowest achievement scores. In the 27,500-student Compton Unified School District, which was taken over by the state last year after becoming insolvent, scores were at or near the county bottom at every grade level and in every category.

The district’s new state-appointed administrator offered no excuses. “If the students are on the bottom, it means many of our teaching procedures are on the bottom,” said J. Jerome Harris.

The Lennox School District is only one notch above last-place Compton in fourth-grade writing and is last in that grade level in math. An overwhelming majority of their youngsters are not fluent in English.

“So much of the stuff that is here on this new test is language based,” said Assistant Supt. Dan Jurenka. “Even (for) the mathematical stuff you had to read first then respond with a drawing of ‘x’ number of coins--it’s all verbal . . . “

In the Pomona Unified School District, where 96% of fourth-graders scored low in math, as did 98% of 10th-graders, one official maintained that “the news is not all bad,” citing that the district holds its own when compared against other low-income districts.

In the 645-campus Los Angeles Unified School District, scores fell below the statewide percentage in nearly every grade and subject level tested. The giant district hovered in the bottom third when ranked with county school districts in all subjects and grade levels, except 10th-grade math.

Notable snapshots of student scores in L. A. Unified show:

* In math, the vast majority of students scored in the bottom two levels on the six-point scale used by the state. Results showed that 83% of fourth-graders, 86% of eighth-graders, and 82% of 10th-graders show limited or little or no mathematical thinking skills.

* Two-thirds of fourth-graders placed in the bottom levels in reading, as did 74% of eighth-graders, and 82% of 10th-grade students. A majority of students scored in the bottom levels in writing.

* About 41% of all students taking the test were not fluent in English, more than double the statewide percentage. District officials say the lack of English skills hurts the scores and is not unexpected.